What Was Missing

Nineteen: -Madeline's Dream-

Everything's black. Nothing exists. And yet, as I shiver in the engulfing darkness, I do. I exist. And I remember.

Not my memories, but someone else's. Memories of something... dark.

The Iss, not what we thought. We were so wrong. All of this...

...The real reason why the exploration began. It wasn't an accident...

...The scientists... Don't think about that.

Flinging open my crusty eyelids, I gasp at the surge of light, and when it fades to a reasonable level, watch from up above through the eyes of another. A scent of newly-cut grass wafts up to my scaly nostrils, and as I inhale the humid air, losing my train of thought, I take a look around.

I'm in the cage. And I can't control my body.

Struggling against the overpowering force that's moving my limbs, I can only watch the scene below, screaming in my head and writhing in my mind. Max is approaching his parents, looking rejoiced, and Lily stands to the side, but I know something's horribly wrong. Lily's starting to shout, but as I try to warn him, not a whisper glides from my lips. No...

I can only watch as Max gets pierced by the jet-black tentacle, and as Lily looks on, horrified. I can only view as she catches him when he falls lifelessly to the ground, and I can only shudder as an enormous foot drops down on his poor parents with a sickening squelch. I can only gaze, slowly lumbering away, as the blackest being goes back from whence it came, tendrils of dark retracting within. I can only follow, and sob without a sound. I can only stalk, silent as an assassin. And for now, I do. For at this moment, I'm not Madeline anymore.

I am the darkness. I am the dragon.

After rumbling suitably far into the mist, distance enough that they can't get a glance of the tip of my tail, I spread my velvety wings and start to heave into the air. My elongated limbs beat relentlessly against the humid fog, making surprisingly little sound, and thin black pupils readjusting, I continue to work, trying to reach an updraft. They're only so high up, so very high... Got it.

The reason why Max couldn't see the ceiling? There isn't one.

As I burst out of the cage's limits, I finally catch a hint of wind and glide upwards into the cooling air. Nobody out yet. And so I circle above, looking down, and readjusting my acute vision only when a teenage girl stumbles down the muddy path. Lily.

She's clutching a cloak-covered body, who I assume can only be Max, and lowering slightly, I watch from far behind. After a moment of clumsy sprinting, she trips into the path, and shoulders heaving, lies there, helpless. I wish so badly that I could assist her, so badly, but unfortunately, my limbs remain disobedient to my brain. After a moment, she pulls to her knees, arms barely supporting her against the slippery muck, and looks up into the sky. To my surprise, her face is soaked with tears. For Max...? She collapses into the mud, sobbing, but after a long stillness, shoots upright, flings Max over her back, and continues to dash towards the nearest town. What is she doing? I follow her path with my eyes, and growl softly. A dragon town. Meadowbrooke. Somehow, I know the name, but I don't know why. Just like how I knew they were dreaming...

As I follow her in the sky like a second shadow, I raise my eye-ridges as I see her pupil. It's slitted. Draconic. She's... for once, I don't know what she is. And that scares me more than anything.

I shake my elongated head, snorting derisively, and glide forward to track her further. She's approaching the village, speeding up as she gets closer, and I suddenly realize what she's going to do. She's bent past the point of no return... She's going to attack the town. I can't let that happen. Wings beating faster and harder, I get nearer, closer, and as she whips around to face me with rage clearly written on her face, I let my tentacles shoot forward and sink into her tensed body. Gasping, her pupils widen to fill the whites of her eyes, and she goes limp as I carefully lower her to the ground. She can't die, but neither can anybody in the town. As soon as Max's body drops from her arms, I gently pick her up with my violet claws and rise into the air once more, jaw angled upwards.

Max will be fine... I know he'll be. He'll wake up in the town, and they'll take him in like a son. They're good like that. I know that for a fact. I don't know how, but I do.

I'll bring Lily to the jungle. If she happens to remember her rage when she awakes, she'll have to take it out on the trees.

I don't know where I'll wake up. If I'll wake up. But if I do, I'll spend all of my time trying to get them back, to go back home. If I remember. If I can. Memories are flooding into my soul, reminding me of the true motives of this place, and I know this: We have to go home. Or else... An ebony tear slides down my cheekbone, and I roar into the cloudy sky.

We have to leave, or we'll die.

There's no hope for my parents anymore.

Note: To clear things up a bit, these memories are assumedly those of the versions of Maddy, Lily, and Max from the Iss. Max and Maddy will wake in the Dragon Room, where Max fell asleep before the Reckoning phase. Lily will wake on the back of Kantar, being taken to 'Them' as she was before. And, far away, something much darker will awaken.

We will leave that for you to find out.